New 'From-the-Ground' Report Reformulates Simplistic Argument About HIV/ AIDS and Health Care Systems in a Fundamental Way

... Dr. Jim Kim of Harvard School of Public Health joins International...NEW YORK and HARARE Zimbabwe and BOSTON and SAO PAULO Brazil July 2...The new report launched during a teleconference with Dr. Jim Yong Kim...Dr. Kim praised the report and noted that it is both welcome and timel...

Dr. Jim Kim of Harvard School of Public Health joins International
Treatment Preparedness Coalition to release new report and call for broad,
systematic approach to HIV/AIDS and health care scale up

NEW YORK and HARARE, Zimbabwe and BOSTON and SAO PAULO, Brazil, July 29
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The International Treatment Preparedness
Coalition (ITPC), a group of 1,000+ treatment advocates from more than 125
countries, issued its sixth report on delivery of AIDS treatment today.
Missing the Target #6: The HIV/AIDS Response and Health Systems: Building
on success to achieve health care for all is available at
http://www.aidstreatmentaccess.org.

The new report, launched during a teleconference with Dr. Jim Yong Kim,
Director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights
(FXB) at Harvard University and advocates from around the world, provides
some of the first from-the-ground research to inform the debate on HIV
treatment scale up and its interaction with health systems. It includes
reports from six countries: Argentina, Brazil, the Dominican Republic,
Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Dr. Kim praised the report and noted that it is both welcome and timely
to set the stage for the next phase of research and investigation for AIDS
services and health care systems scale up in developing countries.

"The report shows that each country situation is complex. Every country
has made thousands of decisions, good and bad. What we are seeing now is
that funding for HIV is, for the first time in history, directed at chronic
care for a chronic condition. We have the opportunity to think hard about
what it will take to keep a large population of people healthy over their
entire lives. What we know is that it takes more than just antiretrovirals.
This report takes us to the point of reformulating in a fundamental way the
argument over HIV and health systems," Dr. Kim said.

Matilda Moyo, a co-author of the report's Zimbabwe chapter said, "What
we found was that HIV/AIDS services, particularly provision of
antiretrivirals, have become a lifeline for the health care system in
Zimbabwe. In the midst of the economic and political crises, a consistent
focus on HIV health services has been an oasis in a whole desert of the
collapsing health delivery system."

Problems in Zimbabwe include extreme shortages of healthcare workers,
with one doctor often responsible for providing services for 8,000
patients, frequent drug stock outs and a crumbling healthcare
infrastructure. "Some donors such as the Global Fund have come together to
provide much needed financial resources for Zimbabwe," added Moyo. "For
example, efforts have been made to invest in infrastructure through HIV
programs which has boosted the general health delivery system."

Alessandra Nilo, a co-author of the report's Brazil chapter, said, "In
Brazil, HIV/AIDS services have been scaled-up in conjunction with the
expansion of general public health. The scale up of AIDS services has also
had positive impacts on human rights, education and sexuality in Brazil."

Brazil has been cited as a great success story for developing strong
HIV treatment and prevention programs as well as general public health
programs. Nilo added, "Despite the success of integrating HIV and general
health systems, we still identified clear and distinct benefits for
maintaining dedicated HIV-related services."

"The AIDS response in Zimbabwe, Brazil and other countries shows that
new investments in health can have dramatic impact. But a simple
reshuffling of health resources toward more generalized health functions at
the expense of effective disease-specific programs, such as HIV/AIDS, would
jeopardize the remarkable advances that have been made and leave the more
than six million people who urgently need AIDS treatment without this
care," said Chris Collins, a co-coordinator of the report.

"The scale up of antiretroviral therapy in the developing world is the
most ambitious public health undertaking of our lifetimes," said Gregg
Gonsalves, a co-coordinator of the project. "We were told it couldn't be
done, and shouldn't be done, but we persevered, set ambitious goals and
targets, and now 3 million people are on antiretroviral treatment."

"AIDS is a disease of primary health care, and we need to strengthen
health systems to provide for the future of AIDS treatment," Gonsalves
added. "We are the heirs of Alma Ata. We will make comprehensive primary
care -- health for all -- a reality. We'll be told again that it is
impossible. Well, we've done the impossible and will do it again. What ITPC
is about is finding out what people need and what is happening on the
ground, and then pushing to make the changes that will save people's
lives."

"If the UN's health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are to
have and chance of being realized, we need to do for health systems what
we've done for AIDS, while increasing the momentum of the response to
AIDS," added Collins.

Key findings from the report include:

1. The HIV/AIDS response to date has had sizeable positive impacts on
health care in many settings: building infrastructure and systems, raising
the bar on quality, extending the reach of health care to socially
marginalized groups, and engaging consumers.

2. But new investments in HIV/AIDS services have also exposed existing
fragilities in health systems. In some cases expanding demand has stretched
already overextended human resources and placed increasing burdens on
infrastructure.

3. The engagement of health consumers and advocates in AIDS scale up
has forced global and national leaders toward a more vigorous sense of
accountability and urgency, both critical elements in the success of AIDS
programming.

About the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition

The International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC) was born out
of the International Treatment Preparedness Summit that took place in Cape
Town, South Africa in March 2003. That meeting brought together for the
first time community-based HIV treatment activists and educators from over
60 countries. Since the Summit, ITPC has grown to include more than 1,000
activists from over 125 countries and has emerged as a leading civil
society coalition on treatment preparedness and access issues. On the web
at http://www.itpcglobal.org

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